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Farmers Union will feature 60 beers on tap, a 36-seat bar and dozens of flat screen TVs, including a 200-inch projection screen. The bar/restaurant will try to draw crowds for Sharks hockey games and SAP Center events.

After the success of downtown San Jose’s San Pedro Square Market, investors in the project are aiming to bolster the rest of the block with a new combination bar and restaurant.

The 7,000-square-foot Farmers Union restaurant is set to open June 28 at 151 W. Santa Clara St. It features 60 beers on tap and a food menu designed to complement the (mostly) craft brews, proprietor Mike Messinger said. The business is owned by an investment group called 151 Partners LLC.

“What we’re trying to create is a destination place for people to come from all over,” Messinger said. “Beer is also doing really well down here. Everyone’s adding more taps.”

The Farmers Union — the actual name of the restaurant’s 19th-

century building, which operated as a farmer’s co-op and bank — is the newest example of the national craft beer craze that’s finally hit downtown San Jose.

Messinger said the project has been in the works since late 2012. It initially grew out of a casual conversation with Tom McEnery, a fellow San Pedro Square Market investor and now a partner in the new restaurant. McEnery owns several properties in the area, including the 1874-era

Masson-Lefranc building that houses the Farmers Union.

“We were just sitting at the Starbucks across the street looking at it,” Messinger said. “In our opinion, it’s the best corner in downtown.”

The location anchors one side of the wrought-iron archway at the intersection of Santa Clara and San Pedro streets that marks the entrance to San Pedro Square. Inside the arch, a mix of restaurants and bars line the street that also hosts a farmers market during the summer months.

If all goes as planned, the new restaurant may boost other development efforts in the San Pedro Square area of downtown.

Essex Property Trust broke ground on the new 312-unit One South Market apartment tower on June 25, just one block from San Pedro Square. San Jose’s first high-rise condo building, City Heights, is located nearby at 175 W. St. James St. Developers announced earlier this year that the building’s 116 units had been sold after six years on the market.

Farmers Union Executive Chef Charles Crossley, formerly of San Francisco’s Potrero Brewing Company and Berkeley’s Paragon Restaurant and Bar, said he hopes the new restaurants’ “upscale comfort food” will help augment San Jose’s dining scene.

“San Jose has been ready to be a food town for a while,” Crossley said. “There just hasn’t been enough talent trickling down” from the San Francisco area.

General Manager Aaron Williams, of management company KemperSports, said the restaurant is also gunning for craft beer aficionados by focusing on local brews. Beer prices start at $6.50, though the 36-seat bar—located right in the center of the restaurant—will also serve wine and cocktails.

Messinger said the business will be counting on San Jose Sharks games and events at soon-to-be-named SAP Center (formerly HP Pavilion) to drive traffic.

“We’re thinking about building an area like the Gaslamp district in San Diego,” Messinger said. “You can’t do that if your prime corner is vacant. It was kind of embarrassing for the 10th biggest city in the country.”

Lauren Hepler is the economic development reporter at the Silicon Valley Business Journal.

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